High delivery performance for Express Mail Service items

IPC'S EMS Task Force

EMS is the fastest UPU service. It requires postal operators to provide not only tracking information but high-quality and reliable service performance end to end. In 1993, IPC together with a group of postal operators formed the EMS Task Force with the aim to help one another meet agreed performance targets for handling and delivering EMS items according to their customer’s expectations.

Item monitoring and performance analysis

The main role of the EMS Task Force is to provide item monitoring and performance analysis. Members receive EMS delivery performance reports for their inbound and outbound traffic on export, transport, and delivery.

In addition to leading the EMS Task Force group, IPC produces the EMS performance reports on return of tracking, quality of service, customer service performance and payment reports on behalf of the UPU EMS Cooperative.

IPC is using online diagnostic tools that report up-to-date performance and advance notification of potential IT or operational issues. Members have access to ad-hoc reporting developed on request to focus on any particular aspects of the end-to-end network that are of interest to each member.

Among the achievements of the EMS Task Force group is the development of the business requirements for the UPU Standard M40 - EMSEVT V3 message that is used to track identified items. The EMSEVT V3 message supports an expanded set of item-level tracking events and will change the way service performance is measured for postal operators. The M40 UPU standard was granted status 1 at the April 2013 UPU Standards meeting after close to one year of use in production, a recognition that the enhancements in the message support the business requirements with regards tracking for identified items.

Although the initial aim of the EMS Task Force was to improve the delivery service for its members, the group now offers services to a wider EMS community. The group works closely with the E-Parcel Group and PRIME group and with the Universal Postal Union (UPU) EMS Cooperative. Today, quality reports developed by the EMS Task Force are distributed to all the members of the UPU EMS Cooperative.

Today, the EMS Task Force group has 13 IPC members spread over North America, Western Europe and Asia Pacific. The group, in cooperation with the UPU EMS Cooperative drives improvement in the measurement of EMS performance for the EMS community.